Community workers off to India
David Masango
1 March 2005
A group of 30 community development workers has left for India to gain exposure in fields of their work.
The group hopes to tap into some of the abundant knowledge that the Indian people possess in the community development field.
During Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi's visit to India last year, both governments agreed to promote training to achieve developmental goals in both countries.
Community development workers - a concept introduced by President Thabo Mbeki in 2003 - help the government with service delivery by improving communication and generally advising and assisting local people to access services to which they are entitled.
By December 2004, at least 500 learners in Gauteng, Northern Cape, North West and Eastern Cape had been recruited.
The Western Cape has also recruiting at least 400 people to undergo a combination of class-based and in-service training at the University of
the Western Cape this year.
Bidding the group farewell in Johannesburg on Friday, Fraser-Moleketi said the programme was key to improved service delivery, especially in poor communities.
"The main objective of the programme is to bridge the gap between the provision of services and people's access to those services", Fraser-Moleketi said.
"We need to ensure that government is brought closer to the people and opens avenues for the participation of people at all levels. To this end, government is committed to deploying community development workers to all municipalities by March 2006."
One of the workers, Ellen Mabille from North West, said she hoped to gain more training on how to apply various government policies and programmes in order to implement projects in poor communities.
"I volunteer my services to women and childrenin communities, which includes helping them access services such as health care, education, grants and skills development", Mabille
said.
Jeff Swart from the Western Cape said he hoped to gain knowledge to apply in numerous projects he is involved with in the Rietpoort area of his province.
"India has a very large population compared to ours, and it has been involved in such a project for many years", Swart said. "We can go there and tap into their rich knowledge in community development work to apply in our country.
"We need to find out how they can successfully run this programme with such a large population."
Eight senior public service officials are accompanying the group.
Source: BuaNews
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